Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-03-18
Or. TALMAGE's SERMON.
Not an Atheist in the Whole
World.
Subject of the Discourse. 'Thc Swelling %
Jordan"-A Personal ENpianation.

Jordan"-A Personal Explanation.
Tie subject of DR.. Talmage's sermon
was "Tle Swelling of Jordan" and his
text Jer. xii. 5: IF thou hast run with the
footmen, aud they have wearied thee, then
how canst thou contend with horses? And
if in the land of peace, wherein thou
trustadst they wearied thee, then how wilt
thou do in the swell ng of Jordan" The
eloquent preacher said:
Not in u p~etulant but in kindly terms |
must complain that a wrong has been done
me aud the cause of honest journalism, Ly
a pretended sermon that is going the
rounds of hundreds Of papers with my
name ~appende6-a sermon entitled "Frauds
Detected" text, Numbers Xviii. 90: But
if We will not do so, behold We have sinned
against The lord; and be sure your sin will
find you out" Not one sentence of that
pretended sermon did l preach. If this
were the only offense of the kind I would
not speak of it. Such a fraud is not only
q wrong 10 me. but to the gentlemen who,
at these tables, Sabbath by Sabbath, take
accurate report of what is said and done;
and is a gross wrong to the 2,OOb newsYa-
pers which give every week my sermon in
FULL to their readers, and often at great en-
/ pense to themselves. The only fault !
have to find with the newspaper press of
this country is that they treat me too we'll.
But / cannot be made responsible for en-
tire sermons. not one word of which did /
preach. But now L turn from personal eX-
PLANTATION to the more important subject Of
the text.
Jeremiah had become impatient with his
troubles. God says to Linn: eli you can
not stand these small trials and persecs-
lions, what are you going to do when the
greater trials and prosecutions come! 1t
YOU have been running q race with foot
men and they have beaten YOU what chance
is there that you will outrun horses" And
then the figure is changed. You know, in
banks and the waters rush violently on,
sweeping everything before them. And
God says to the prophet: IF YOU arc over
come with smaller trials and veNations
which have assaulted you. what will you Go
whenNhe trials and annoyance and perse-
BUTTONS of life come in a freshet?. IL in the
land. OF peace wherein thoa trusted they
wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the
swelling of Jordan?
l propose, ii God will help mc, in a very
practical way to ask-if it is such Il difficult
thing to get along without the religion of
Jesus Christ, when things are compare
lively smooth, what will We do without
Christ amid the o%verpouring mis%fortunes
and disasters of life that may come upon
us? If troubles, slow as footmen, surpass
feet of horses? and ii now in our lifetime
We are beaten back and submerged OF sor-
rows because we have not the religion of
Jesus to comfort us, what will we do when
We stand in death, and we feel all around
about us "the swelling of Jordan:" The
fact that you have come here, my brother,
my sister, shows that you have some things
you believe in common with myself. You
believe that there is a God. There is not
an atheist in all this house. l do not be-
lieve there ever was q real atheist i'll all the
world. Napoleon was on a ships deck
bound for Egypt. 1t was a bright, starry
night, and as he paced the deck, thinking
of the great affairs of the State and OF
battle, he heard two men on the deck in
conversation about God, one saying there
was a God and the other saying there was
Napoleon stopped and looked up at
the starry heavens, and then he turned
to these men in conversation and said:
"Gentlemen, I heard one of you say there
is no God. If there is no God, will you
please to tell me who made all that?' Aye,
If you had not been persuaded of it be-
fore, you are persuaded of it now; for the
shining heavens declare the glory Of God
and the earth shows his handiwork. But
you believe more than that; you believe
that there was a Jesus; You believe that
there was q cross; you believe that You
have an immortal soul; you believe that ii
or you can never dwell i'll bliss eternal. /
think a great many of you will say that you
believe it is important to have the religion
of Jesus Christ every day Of our life to
smooth our tempers and purify u minds,
and hold us imperturbable amid all the an
noyance and vexations of life. You and ]
have seen SO many men trampled down
by misfortune because they had no faith
in Jesus, and you Say to yourself: "If they
were SO easily overcome by the trials of
life, what will it be when greater misfor-
tunes come upon Observation-Disclosures
calamities, tremendous griefs?" Oh. if we
have no God to comfort us when our for
tune goes, and we look upon the grave OF
our children, and our houses are desolate,
what will become OF us? What a sad thing
it is to see men oil unhelped of God, going
out to f. hit giants of trouble; no closet OF
prayer in which to retreat, no promise OF
mercy to soothe the soul, no rock OF refuge
in witch to hide from tine blast. Oh,
when the swift courS RS of trouble are
brought up. cnamping and pantin for the
race, and the reins are thrown upon theil
necks, and the lathered tanks at every
spring feel the stroke of the lash. what car
we do on foot with them? Ii, having rur
with the footmen. they wearied us, how
can we contend with horses?
We have all yielded to temptation. We
have been surprised afterward that SO small
an inducement could have decoyed us from
the r ght. How insignificant a Temptation
has sometimes captured our soul! And i
that is so, my dear brother, what will i
be when we come to stand in the presence
of temptation that Frustrated q David, ant
a Moses, and a Peter, and some Of tn,
mightiest men in all Gods kingdom? Nov
we are honest; but suppose We were place,
in some path of life, as many OF God!
children have been, where all the forces O
earth and hell combine to capture the soul
Without Jesus We would 60 down under it
If already We have been beaten by insig
niticant ,4ootmen. We would be d~istancet
TO- uO leagues by the hor-es. All, 1 don
like to hear a man say: Il could not com
m t such q sin as that. I emit understand
how n man could be carried away like that.
You don't know what you could d.
if the grace of God let's you. You know
what John Iunyan said when he saw
man staggering along the street, thorough.